The present invention relates to devices and methods for vaccination of poultry, and in particular to such devices and methods capable of providing multiple vaccinations simultaneously in a quick and safe manner.
Modern production methods for poultry (primarily chickens and turkeys, but also including ducks, geese, quail, and other birds raised for protein) involve the housing of birds in a very high-density environment, primarily in order to minimize production costs. As a result of the high-density living arrangements, the birds are susceptible to all sorts of communicable avian diseases. The vaccination of birds under these conditions is an essential part of the production process, preventing disease outbreaks that, in many production houses, could otherwise wipe out many thousands of birds before isolation and containment of the disease could occur. Recent concerns about the spread of avian influenza among humans heighten the risk for producers who fail to properly vaccinate their birds.
The typical method for vaccinating poultry today is a manual process. The inventors believe that this process, as used by typical commercial poultry producers, has remained unchanged for more than fifty years. The birds are first caught by hand, and a vaccine is administered either by a droplet placed in the eye of the bird or an injection into the bird's body or wing, depending upon the type of vaccination. Since numerous vaccinations are generally performed simultaneously in order to save time, the usual process is to have a line of workers, each of whom takes a bird in turn and applies a particular vaccination. The bird is returned to its cage after each worker has applied a vaccination.
Labor is a large cost of poultry production, and since the usual process for poultry vaccination is by its very nature labor intensive, vaccination therefore drives up the costs associated with poultry production. Many poultry producers are experiencing an ongoing labor shortage, which further increases the costs associated with this process. In addition, the necessity of holding the bird still during the vaccination process, and the necessity of passing the bird from worker to worker as each vaccination is applied, results in numerous injuries and even deaths to the birds. The manual process also introduces error into the placement of the vaccination, and thus some vaccinations may not be effective. If the error is caught then vaccine is wasted, otherwise the bird will not be properly vaccinated and risks infection. Finally, manual vaccination places the workers themselves at risk of accidentally injecting themselves with the poultry vaccine. Due to the very high volume of vaccinations performed by workers, this type of accident is not uncommon.
The prior art includes a number of attempts to develop machinery that at least partially automates the process of poultry vaccination. An early attempt was the development of a turntable or wheel whereby a bird was hung by its feet and vaccinated by a circle of workers standing around and below the wheel. After each vaccination, the wheel was spun so that a bird was placed in front of the next worker to provide a vaccination. This process did not reduce the number of laborers required for the vaccination process, and has not seen widespread adoption.
Another and more recent example of an attempt to solve these problems is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,227 to Lancaster, Jr. et al. This patent teaches a poultry injection system that includes a cradle into which the bird is placed. The bird is held in place manually by the operator holding the bird's legs with one hand and pressing down on the bird with the other hand. A button to activate the machine is positioned where the hand holding the bird's legs can easily reach. The machinery drives two syringes with injection needles that inject vaccine into the bird's breast. This device still requires substantial manual handling of the bird, since the bird is held with both hands during the vaccination. In addition, the device provides no way to administer the eye-drop vaccinations commonly performed on poultry, and thus additional handling of the bird would be required for that step.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,634,319 to Zermoglio et al. teaches a machine for vaccinating chicks, which includes a cavity into which a chick's head is inserted manually for vaccination. When the beak of the chick activates a sensor, arms move to lock the chick's head into place with respect to the machine. A presser stabilizes the chick's neck for insertion of the vaccination needle. When the arms holding the chick in place are withdrawn, the chick falls onto a conveyor belt below. While this device also automates some aspects of the vaccination process, it provides no means for breast or wing insertion of a vaccination needle or eye-drop vaccinations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,227 to Haskell teaches a poultry vaccinator that provides a semi-automatic method of vaccinating a bird by means of a wing injection. The operator must hold the bird in place in the device's trough during operation, while holding the wing out with the hand not holding the bird's feet. Like the other prior art devices discussed herein, this device is not capable of providing all necessary vaccinations, since there is no means of providing breast or eye-drop vaccination, and there is still a substantial manual component of the process since the bird and the bird's wing must be held in place by the operator's hands.
The limitations of the prior art are overcome by the present invention as described below.